Several parts combine into one character.

The oracle bone form of 取 is one of the more grisly etymologies in the entire CJK system: 又 (a hand) reaching for 耳 (an ear). The reference is to ancient battlefield practice — soldiers would sever an enemy's left ear and present it to the commander as proof of a confirmed kill, the basis for war honors and rewards. The original verb meant "to take an ear in war." Over the millennia this brutal specificity wore away, leaving the abstract sense "to take, to grasp, to obtain."

Korean reading "chwi." Common in formal vocabulary: 取得 (chwideuk, acquisition / obtaining a license), 取消 (chwiso, cancellation), 取材 (chwijae, news gathering / coverage), 摘取 (jeokchwi, to pick / pluck), 爭取 (jaengchwi, to fight to obtain). The Korean compound 取引 (chwiin, "trade / dealings") is actually a Japanese-origin compound borrowed back — Korean stock-market and business writing uses it freely.

Mandarin qǔ, 3rd tone. Top-frequency in everyday speech: 取得 (qǔdé, to obtain), 取消 (qǔxiāo, to cancel), 取出 (qǔchū, to take out / withdraw), 取代 (qǔdài, to replace), 取钱 (qǔ qián, to withdraw money from a bank). 取 is the standard verb for any "fetch / retrieve" action.

Japanese on-reading シュ (shu) appears in news vocabulary — 取材 (shuzai, news coverage), 取得 (shutoku, acquisition), 採取 (saishu, collection / sampling). But the kun-reading とる (toru) is where 取る really lives — one of the most semantically broad verbs in Japanese, covering "to take, grasp, hold, pick, win, snatch, secure." 写真を取る (shashin o toru, to take a photo), 休みを取る (yasumi o toru, to take a break), メモを取る (memo o toru, to take notes). Note that the same sound とる takes different kanji depending on nuance: 取る (general taking), 撮る (photography), 採る (selection), 捕る (catching) — a classic Japanese homophone-kanji distinction.

Memory aid: a hand (又) reaching for an ear (耳) — a brutal origin, but the modern meaning is simply "to take."